Climate Change Forum
This forum was set up in 2021 as a partnership for local interested groups and organisations. The cabinet member from for environment and climate change chairs the meeting.
Council representation includes:
- three Conservative councillors
- one Liberal Democrat councillor
- one Green Party councillor
- one Independent Alliance councillor
- one Labour councillor
Further representation includes one representative from:
- Kent County Council
- Parish councils
- Tonbridge Forum
- Medway Valley Countryside Partnership
- Kent Local Nature Partnership
- Tonbridge and Malling Friends of the Earth
- West Kent College
- Chamber of Commerce
- faith groups
- voluntary and community groups
- Tonbridge and Malling Youth Forum
- East Malling Research
- local landowners
Council officers attend to support the Climate Change Forum as necessary. The forum may invite other parties to attend and contribute to meetings as agreed by the Chair.
It is important to note that this is not a decision-making body of the council.
The Climate Change Forum will:
- enable collaborative working and engagement with individuals, community groups, businesses and other partners in Tonbridge and Malling
- investigate steps to achieve net-zero carbon status and protecting and enhancing biodiversity
- produce a plan of action that is realistic, measurable, and deliverable to work towards meeting targets
Climate Change Forum work so far
In 2023 the Climate Change Forum asked residents, business and the community 5 questions about their priorities for climate action. See the survey findings and summarised next steps here . Please see Climate Change Forum meeting minutes, available at the link below, for further detail about how we are acting on resident’s views.
The forum applied to the Woodland Trust Free Tree Pack Scheme. This scheme aims to plant millions of trees to help combat the effects of carbon emissions. We received 970 whips for planting. The trees were also used for the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative as part the platinum jubilee celebrations.
TMBC has pledged to match the donation with a further thousand trees. We aim to plant these during the 2022 to 2023 planting season.
We selected the Woodland Trust trees to help wildlife. Trees chosen include hawthorn, rowan, blackthorn, silver birch, hazel, and common oak. As they mature, they will absorb roughly 1.25 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. We have planted them at:
- Holly Hill public open space
- Leybourne Lakes Country Park
- Knight Road, Tonbridge
- Quincewood Gardens, Tonbridge
See the latest Climate Change Forum minutes.